Juicero CEO promises refunds for any dissatisfied customers while defending the company’s tech

Jeff Dunn, the former Coca Cola executive who became CEO of Juicero last year, has responded to a wave of coverage suggesting that the company’s juice press isn’t all that was promised — and he’s offering dissatisfied customers their money back.

A Bloomberg report showed that Juicero’s packs could be squeezed by hand, no expensive juicer required.

Dunn’s response? He doesn’t deny that hand-squeezing is a very real possibility, but he does quibble about what you’ll find inside, saying it’s “nothing but fresh, raw, organic chopped produce” — see, it’s not juice yet because it hasn’t been pressed.

“What you will get with hand-squeezed hacks is a mediocre (and maybe very messy) experience that you won’t want to repeat once, let alone every day,” he argued. More importantly, he said, “The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice. Much more.”

What … does that mean? According to Dunn, Juicero’s technology (which is supposed to involve 400 custom parts, including 10 printed circuit boards, a scanner and a microprocessor) allows the company to create “the first closed loop food safety system,” so Juicero could disable produce packs if there’s, say, a spinach recall — which may not sound like a huge selling point, but these things do happen.

Dunn also said the Press is “calibrated by flavor to deliver the best combination of taste and nutrition every time” and that the data from the machine helps the company manage its supply chain.

“The value is in how easy it is for a frazzled dad to do something good for himself while getting the kids ready for school, without having to prep ingredients and clean a juicer,” Dunn said. “It’s in how the busy professional who needs more greens in her life gets App reminders to press Produce Packs before they expire, so she doesn’t waste the hard-earned money she spent on them.”

At the beginning of his post, Dunn said his goal was to “demonstrate the incredible value we know our connected system delivers.” And if you’re not convinced that this is worth $400, well, there’s another option for disillusioned Juicero buyers — Dunn said the company’s “Happiness Guarantee” (i.e., its return policy) has been extended to cover anyone who’s ever purchased a Juicero Press. So for the next 30 days, anyone who’s bought a Press should be able to return it for a full refund.